Skarmory is cool, love its design and its shiny is one of the prettiest designs in pokemon (IMO) and defo an unique mon, he is hard to use in doubles since offensively
he is outclassed by many other Flying type and steel type mons which are currently very dominating. but it does have Sky drop which is great move on him since he is slow and bulky
and after it takes a hit by a faster target the next turn while in the air it renders the targets turn making it a good target for your partner to aim on while having no fear of attacking him back
(Works quite well when your partner protects the first turn so it has a free play next turn) and his Sturdy ability can function as a great savior in order for him to set up Tailwind for example incase he gets by a special fire move or something.
I tried Skarmory in VGC and I'll score it a 7/10 for perfomance because it is a nice support but in the current VGC metagame threads like Heartran,
rotom-W and CharY make his presence quite short, but with the right partners it can still leave a big mark in fight I would say.
I have used him with Tyranitar and M-Garchomp and there it's support roll is great.
Here's my set:
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Abillity: Sturdy
Nature: Careful
EV's: 252 HP / 236 Sp.def / 20 Speed
- Sky Drop
- Iron head / Taunt
- Feint
- Tailwind
The given EV's are so spent to give Skarmory as much Sp.def bulk it needs in order take Hyper Voices very well, and with 236 hitting a double point in stats while 20 Speed will make Skarmory
have 186 Speed after tailwind enough to outspeed all fairies with Iron head and outspending max 117 Base speeds.
This skarmory is focusing on support making use of good typing and Tailwind & Sky drop support for its partners, when using skarmory you wanna run a partner that can handle fire types
so Tyranitar comes to mind or Garchomp (M-Garchomp has in general good synergy with Skarmoy due skarmory allows Garchomp to inflict EQ and can Iron head fairy types
to score kills for Garchomp against fairies.) These three make in general a good VGC core. Anyway, on to its move set.
Leftovers This is the item of choice for this set, as it allows Skarmory to have a two turn of 1/16 recovery with Sky Drop, of course Sitrus berry is an option aswell but
it doesn't really add something in my experience since it has Sturdy to. But its personal taste.
Sky drop This is an important move on skarmory as with its general bulk it is able to take a hit and Sky drop will send him and his foe in the air giving your partner the ease to not be concerd about the target in the air or nail it when its down waiting for the next turn to occur, this makes skarmory quite unique in the metagame aswell because the other Sky drop user is Aerodactyl and he is fast and is killed easier when using this support since the second turn he is more quicker done and the target can move incase it was slower the previous turn. Great support move in general.
Tailwind This allows Skarmory to reach a great speed tier thanks to his already above average speed for a waller and gives its partners a sweet speed boost aswell, and like I said before M-garchomp loves this. Now comes the clutch move called
Feint and while this move is weak for skamory its secondary effect is very crucial because it allowes your partner to spam Earthquake (Hench Garchomp again lol)
and pierces through Wide guard and Protect which are popular moves in the VGC metagame. This is also great to score a gang surprise kills on your opponent's mega-mons that rely on a speed boost, take M-Salamence or M-beedril who always run Protect on their sets, they will be shocked and can ruin their momentum very hard. The third move is rather filler,
Taunt is nice to stop prankster mons or Trick room setters but in general
Iron head is a better move for coverage because with an EQ partner like Garchomp or Mamoswine it can score kills on Sylveon and M-gardevoir, not to mention that with tailwind you also have that luck factor for flinching your opponent.